sleandres wrote:Oh he is just jealous Don't worry sf, you and I will always have the Giants to talk about

EMan32 wrote:

jimbob631 wrote:Not telling people who to vote for, but making people aware of issues around the world and influencing them, im sure Lebron could really do something about Nike's sweat shops, he brings in more money than the sweat shops save for the company.

not that im in favor of sweat shops, but you get rid of them and you might as well say goodbye to half the things owned by 90% of the american population and the greater part of the european population. costs of all items created in those shops for us buying them retail will go up considerably. suddenly a pair of jordans goes from $140 to $300. again, im not in favor of sweat shops...if only there was a way to keep production and cost the same without them i'd be all for it. personally i can go (and have been going) without top of the line stuff. i have maybe one real pair of nike's and a couple pair's of fake jordan's along with some van's and adidas. i dont support sweat shops, but i guess the fact that i have a pair of nike's it kinda contradicts that...???

either way, to ask lebron to speak up on the issue is kinda out there. i mean, yeah, i agree that he can make some kind of impact on the situation...but getting in the way of him and his contract is kinda asking too much. basically Ira Newble asked Lebron to get rid of damn near 100 million dollars. as i teammate, i wouldnt have questioned Lebron's morality publicly or put him on blast for anything. if they had talked privately about it before and lebron told him that he wants to change nik'e sweat shop system then i understand what newble was doing. but otherwise i still respect lebron and totally understand that he wouldnt want to get involved in so much of a political issue that goes way too deep into questioning his morality.

jimbob631 wrote:If I were Lebron I would try and do something, I really dont get the difference between having 20 million and 100 million. The price thing is just because cooperations are money hungry, look at Marbury's shoes (even tho I hate marbury) they are priced at 15 dollars and they r made of the same material as nikes. If u remove sweat shops from the equation they could still price the shoes at the same amount, they would just make less money but still a **** load. If an athlete like lebron or jordan would bring attention to these issues we would be a step closer to removing them. No matter the amount of money, its not ok for children to be working in those conditions or at all. Its just plain evil.

jimbob631 wrote:True, but if Lebron made a stand with other athletes under nike then they definitly could make a difference. Imagine if Michael came out against sweat shops. The bottom line is its not cool that athletes support these sports brands, its one thing to buy the shoes but its another to be advertise and market them.

jimbob631 wrote:True, but if Lebron made a stand with other athletes under nike then they definitly could make a difference. Imagine if Michael came out against sweat shops. The bottom line is its not cool that athletes support these sports brands, its one thing to buy the shoes but its another to be advertise and market them.

coltraning wrote:

jimbob631 wrote:True, but if Lebron made a stand with other athletes under nike then they definitly could make a difference. Imagine if Michael came out against sweat shops. The bottom line is its not cool that athletes support these sports brands, its one thing to buy the shoes but its another to be advertise and market them.

I agree. This is the biggest positive in Stephon Marbury's career, the idea of making affordable sneakers. There are plenty of examples of athletes making stands, Nash being one of the latest, and Jordan's AWOl on this issue was truly disappointing. Athletes making a stand would absolutely make Nike change its ways. I mean who would ever have guessed that McDonald's would start using free range chickens or Starbucks carry fair trade coffee a few years back. If Lebron and Kobe and few others took a stand, the shoe companies would clean up their slave labor act in a blink.

cladden wrote:The question is also, are you willing to pay twice as much for the shoes? I am not saying I am against it but you have to factor that in. That goes for a lot of things in the US. Would you be willing to pay 30$ for a burger so that the waiter and chef actually got paid? In the end the money won't come out of the corporation's pocket. Trust me on that. If a corporation does something responsible it's because they see marketing value in it.

coltraning wrote:

cladden wrote:The question is also, are you willing to pay twice as much for the shoes? I am not saying I am against it but you have to factor that in. That goes for a lot of things in the US. Would you be willing to pay 30$ for a burger so that the waiter and chef actually got paid? In the end the money won't come out of the corporation's pocket. Trust me on that. If a corporation does something responsible it's because they see marketing value in it.

actually, the cost of the labor would make a negligible difference....there is a company called no sweat which makes t shirts, sneaks, etc...for basically the same price...a tshirt costs $1 more and the workers all get a living wage. basically, it is the obscene profits that make up most of the cost of shoes, not the wages...check it out - a way to help and get good quality stuff as well:

http://www.nosweatapparel.com/index.html